You currently have javascript disabled. Several functions may not work. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality.

Register a free account to unlock additional features at BleepingComputer.com

Welcome to BleepingComputer, a free community where people like yourself come together to discuss and learn how to use their computers. Using the site is easy and fun. As a guest, you can browse and view the various discussions in the forums, but can not create a new topic or reply to an existing one unless you are logged in. Other benefits of registering an account are subscribing to topics and forums, creating a blog, and having no ads shown anywhere on the site.

If you can't get to the boot screen by pressing F12 at boot, then IME it's most likely a hard drive problem.

And having the backup show 0 bytes is also a symptom of a hard drive problem (although it can be other things).

The test we do at work is to remove the hard drive and then see if the F12 key combo works.
Be sure to remove the power and battery before opening the case - and to ground yourself before handling the hard drive.

Then connect the power (it's OK to leave the battery out) and see if F12 gets you to the boot selection menu.

If that doesn't work, then the next thing to check is the RAM,

But that's a bit more finicky - as you have only 2 sticks and 2 slots

In that case, you try one stick in each of the slots and then the other stick in each of the 2 slots.

The point here is being sure that you remove power and ground yourself before handling the RAM each and every time.

You're again looking for the ability to get to the boot selection menu using the F12 key

In the event that it's a bad hard drive you'll have to contact Toshiba for a set of recovery disks. Last I knew they were around $45 (US), but that's a lot cheaper than a new copy of Windows.

This is the exact issue I'm facing and I was hoping that it wasn't hardware. I'm afraid it might be though. I'll try to get into my BIOS and see if I can update it. In the meantime, I did try the RAM stick removal and switch, but the computer was plugged in the whole time I was doing that. I'll unplug it and try that again. Any other recommendations?